Head of Strategic Institutions

About the role

You are the Relationship Monetizer for all VIP institutions, and your network is the pipeline as you originate, progress, and close partnerships with VIP institutional clients including banks, asset managers, hedge funds, family offices, quant funds, and sovereign wealth funds that generate substantial recurring revenues and validate OKX as a credible institutional counterparty globally. You own the consolidated institutional revenue target across all segments, carrying the number, the forecast, and pipeline health while curating, expanding, and monetizing your personal network of C-suite relationships at the largest global financial institutions. You determine the vertical strategy and segment prioritization, balancing long-cycle bank partnerships (6-12+ months, custom integration, marquee logos) with shorter-cycle fund and asset manager clients (3-6 months, more standardized product, revenue velocity), and you act as the commercial architect on the biggest deals, structuring creative partnerships, negotiating terms, and closing while working alongside your Sr. Relationship Director and overseeing the Sr. Institutional Relationship Manager on a global level. You conduct product need analysis and advocacy, estimating the ROI of feature requests, and you leverage deep market intelligence to shape product and partnership roadmaps that reinforce OKX's position as a trusted institutional infrastructure. You build and maintain rigorous forecasting and reporting cadences, translating complex deal dynamics into clear narratives that align internal stakeholders and drive consensus on growth initiatives. You serve as a primary strategic advisor to top-tier clients, guiding them through crypto market evolution and helping them derive tangible value from OKX products and integrations.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Tier 1 network ownership and expansion, curating, expanding, and monetizing your personal network of C-suite relationships at the largest global financial institutions to establish the vertical's primary competitive advantage.
• Revenue ownership and pipeline oversight, carrying the consolidated institutional revenue target across all segments and owning the number, the forecast, and pipeline health.
• Vertical strategy and segment prioritization, determining how to balance long-cycle bank partnerships (6-12+ months, custom integration, marquee logos) with shorter-cycle fund and asset manager clients (3-6 months, more standardized product, revenue velocity).
• Tier 1 deal origination and closing (commercial structuring), being the commercial architect on the biggest deals, structuring creative partnerships, negotiating terms, and closing while working alongside your Sr. Relationship Director and overseeing the Sr. Institutional Relationship Manager on a global level.
• Product need analysis and advocacy (ROI estimate of feature requests), conducting product need analysis and advocating based on ROI estimates to influence product decisions and partnership opportunities.
• Market intelligence generation and competitive analysis, synthesizing client feedback, market trends, and competitor moves to shape product and partnership roadmaps that reinforce OKX's institutional positioning.
• Stakeholder alignment and executive communication, building rigorous forecasting and reporting cadences and translating complex deal dynamics into clear narratives that align internal stakeholders and drive consensus on growth initiatives.
• Strategic advisory to top-tier clients, serving as a primary strategic advisor to guide C-suite clients through crypto market evolution and helping them derive tangible value from OKX products and integrations.
• Cross-functional collaboration with product, legal, compliance, and engineering teams to translate institutional requirements into actionable product enhancements and seamless execution.
• Ownership of end-to-end deal lifecycle management, from initial outreach and discovery through negotiation, contracting, and post-close value realization, ensuring commercial terms reflect OKX's strategic priorities.
• Revenue model innovation and pricing strategy, exploring alternative structures, incentives, and commercial levers that optimize long-term value and client commitment.
• Talent leverage and mentorship, coordinating with senior relationship directors and institutional relationship managers to elevate the team's collective performance and capability.

Requirements

• You have extensive experience selling to or working with large financial institutions such as banks, asset managers, hedge funds, family offices, quant funds, and sovereign wealth funds.
• You possess a proven track record of closing complex, high-value deals in financial services or crypto environments.
• You have deep expertise in institutional finance, market structures, and the expectations of C-suite stakeholders at large financial organizations.
• You demonstrate exceptional relationship-building and network leverage abilities, with a strong track record of cultivating and monetizing high-trust executive relationships.
• You show outstanding commercial judgment and the capacity to structure creative partnerships, negotiate sophisticated terms, and manage multi-stakeholder decision processes.
• You have strong analytical skills, including experience with forecasting, pipeline management, and ROI estimation for product and partnership initiatives.
• You communicate with precision and influence at the executive level, crafting compelling narratives that align technical concepts with business value.
• You are comfortable operating in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment, taking ownership of ambitious targets and driving results across distributed teams.
• You are fluent in English, both written and verbal, with professional communication skills for executive audiences.

Nice to have

• Experience with crypto exchanges, digital asset platforms, or blockchain infrastructure is preferred.
• Background in serving Tier 1 financial institutions or managing large institutional portfolios is advantageous.
• Familiarity with regulatory frameworks relevant to crypto and financial services in EMEA is beneficial.

Practical notes

This role is remote within the EMEA region, and engagement terms should be verified in the source materials.